Hair Salons Are Doing Their Part for Charity

Who knew how much money human hair could be worth. This highly sought after commodity can be customarily used for all sorts of things. Whether it be to make wigs to cover the bald heads of cancer patients who have endured the rigors of chemotherapy and radiation or make rugs and welcome mats to be sold to raise money, human hair has a wide variety of uses once it is cut off. Hair salons across the country routinely donate locks and hair clippings to various charities and even hold special fundraisers and events to bring widespread public awareness to how locks can benefit people once they have been cut off.

Socially conscious hair salons throughout the nation are doing their part to make the most of hair clippings and long locks. One organization that various hair salons work with is called Matter of Trust. This charity actually uses donated clippings to create hair mats that are used to soak up oil spills. As strange as this idea sounds, it is actually pretty ingenious. Matter of Trust absorbs the oil from tanker, rig and ship spills with the absorbent hair clippings. This prevents the spills from leaching into water and land habitats. Oil spills may sound like a small-scale problem, but according the Matter of Trust, there were actually over 2,600 oil spills throughout the world last year alone. Needless to say, the hair clippings that hair salons donate to Matter of Trust definitely go to good use!

Many barbershops and hair salons also offer their time and talents to help raise money for Saint Baldrick's Foundation. This charity encourages both men and women to take donations from friends and family in exchange for shaving their heads. Saint Baldrick's uses the monetary donations to fund research and raise awareness to the issue of various types of children's cancers. 

The foundation boasts that it has raised over $90 million in the fight against kids' cancer. In the process it also oversaw the shaving of more than 140,000 heads and counting. Saint Baldrick's is actually the largest volunteer-driven children's cancer research charity in the world, and very few organizations made up completely of volunteers can boast the success that Saint Baldrick's has.

One of the most popular charities that hair salons support in large numbers is Locks of Love. The mission of Locks of Love is to provide hairpieces to underprivileged children suffering from cancer. The organization seeks to give some self-respect and dignity to kids who are dealing with the tolls that cancer treatment takes on their bodies, specifically the chemotherapy patients who lose most of their hair through the chemo process. Locks of Love realizes that children's self-esteem and confidence can take a major hit when an illness such as cancer causes them to lose their hair. This situation can also make it difficult for kids to face their peers, and, in fact, makes them feel even more strange and distant. Hairpieces can give the kids a chance to feel a little bit more normal. Locks of Love enlists the help of hair salons to cut and preserve hair to be used in hair pieces for the kids. The only caveat is that the hair must be at least 10 inches long and cut off in a ponytail to ensure that it is useable.